JACOB BEN NAPHTALI:

Talmudist of Gnesen; flourished about 1650. His father was clerk of the Jewry in Great Poland (), and died in 1646. Jacob lost his fortune and books in a fire, and had to wander aimlessly about. In 1652 he published in Amsterdam "Naḥalat Ya'aḳob: Meliẓot," a book of poems, containing a dialogue between the body and the soul, hymns for the dedication of a scroll of the Law, and elegies on the Cossack massacre of 1648. Jacob superintended as corrector the printing of Nathan Hanover's work "Yewen Meẓulah" (Venice, 1653). In 1654, when Jacob intended to go to Rome in order to procure from the pope a letter of protection against the blood accusation and the excesses committed by the students of Jesuit colleges in Great Poland, he was highly recommended to the Italian communities by Moses Zacuto.